John Gedmark
Co-Founder and CEO, Astranis. On 2 shows, 4 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveengineer@Gedmark ↗LinkedIn ↗astranis.com ↗
He is the co-founder and CEO of Astranis, which develops small geostationary telecommunications satellites to provide broadband internet access worldwide. Previously, he served as the founding Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
2shows
4appearances
49statements
19resolved
11supported
2contradicted
58%fully supported
Everything John Gedmark said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Gedmark: Future lunar bases will require a dedicated GPS system for navigation
“The moon will need its own GPS system. You're on the lunar surface. You want to know where you are. Same thing as on the earth. You want to be able to just pull up, you know Google maps, navigate back to your lunar base, right? And then have that have that pos…”
Gedmark: Space industry can now launch small satellites rapidly on demand
“We can now launch small satellites on demand very rapidly and very responsibly. We've never been able to do that before.”
Gedmark: No company used small satellites in higher orbits before Astranis
“In some of the higher orbits that are more difficult to get to, but are still incredibly valuable, no one was going and taking a small satellite approach.”
Legacy GEO satellites cost billions and take years to build
“They're typically only built by a handful of companies in the entire world. They cost hundreds of millions of dollars, ah, on the commercial side, and then on the military, national security side, it's in the billions of dollars. For a single satellite. And th…”
Gedmark: Astranis launching satellites for Alaska and Peru in 2023
“We're launching our first satellite in a couple months for the U.S. State of Alaska and then shortly after that we'll be launching another satellite for Peru”
Gedmark: China conducted more space launches than any nation over four years
“Over the last, ah, several years, last four years, China's been launching, doing more space launches than any country on Earth, including the United States, which I think is a fact people just weren't even aware of.”
Gedmark: Early satellite telecom studies projected six Wi-Fi users per flight
“So in the earliest days of in-flight Wi-Fi, the existing satellite telecoms sort of operators who are notoriously very conservative, very slow, did some studies that they believed that an average of six people per aircraft would be willing to buy this like 20 …”
Gedmark: Astranis has signed commercial contracts for over 10 satellites
“Now, you know, fast forward today, we've signed contracts for, you know, more than more than 10 of these satellites commercially.”
Gedmark: $15B of Large Satellites Launch to GEO Annually
“There's about fifteen billion dollars worth of these satellite, large satellites launched to Geo and other high orbits every year.”
Gedmark: Commercial GEO Satellites Cost Hundreds of Millions, Military Over $1B
“Really for the commercial side is in this like few hundred million range.
And then on the military side, the satellites cost over a billion dollars per satellite.
Sometimes multiple billions.
Per satellite.”
Gedmark: Astranis satellites use ion thrusters with scuba-tank-sized fuel tanks
“We had to really design the whole satellite system around this electric propulsion system. We use an ion thruster, very high performance that allows us to, you know, essentially have all the fuel on board that we need in the size of a couple of tanks that, tha…”
Gedmark: DoD buys Astranis's standard commercial satellites to lower costs
“Where we've seen interest from the DOD, it is actually also for these same satellites off of that same production line. They are very interested in this dual use type of scenario where they actually get to benefit from all the private capital that we've raised…”
Gedmark: The technology that won the XPRIZE became Virgin Galactic
“And the company ended up winning that, that, that group and that technology ended up becoming what is now Perger Galactic.”
Gedmark: Early space trade groups were controlled by traditional defense contractors
“And all the organizations at the time were basically run by the major aerospace and defense companies.”
Gedmark: Astranis builds micro-satellites slightly larger than a mini fridge
“Our satellites at Astronus are a little bit larger than that. Similar class you know, what we call micro satellites.”
Gedmark: Broadcast satellite TV was one of space's biggest moneymakers
“One of the biggest moneymakers in in, in the history of all of space was broadcast satellite TV. And that is, that was all done with these large, very expensive geo satellites.”
Gedmark: Roughly a dozen military communication satellites cover the world
“The, you know, the military communication satellites, I think there's roughly a dozen that cover the whole world, so they're spread around the whole world.”
Gedmark: Russia severed Ukraine's communications on day one via satellite cyberattack
“The Russians took out that satellite on day one of the invasion with a massive cyber attack. And just in one fell swoop, cut off comms across, you know, almost all of Ukraine because they've been very heavily reliant on just this one satellite.”
Gedmark: Rocket reusability is driving down space launch costs significantly
“And third is launch reusability, which is already driving down launch costs by a huge amount and opening up an explosion of activity in space.”
Gedmark: Small space startups are now deploying synthetic aperture radar
“You even have a synthetic aperture radar. Something, I think, we never thought a new small company could go and do. And now they're doing it.”
Gedmark: Global broadband data demand grows 33% year-over-year
“The world's demand for broadband data has been growing at an insane exponential rate. 33% year-on-year growth, and that is just showing no signs of stopping.”
Gedmark: Space communications is a $120 billion annual market
“So, to be clear, communications is a hundred twenty billion a year.”
Gedmark: Traditional satellites historically cost hundreds of millions and match bus sizes
“The big satellites that historically cost several hundred million dollars each You know, they are the size of a school bus, if not like a double decker, you know, big, big red London double decker bus.”
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens John's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 a16zLEDGER | Co-Founder and CEO, Astranis | 3 | 36 | 43% 6/14 | full record on the a16z Podcast → |
 TBPNLEDGER | Co-Founder and CEO, Astranis | 1 | 13 | 100% 5/5 | full record on TBPN → |